PhD position – Development of novel computational methods for the analysis of protein function – University of Kent, UK-Kent-Canterbury

Job Description:

ISCB Job Board

PhD position - Development of novel computational methods for the analysis of protein functionUniversity of KentBiosciencesUK-Kent-Canterbury The genomics era has resulted in the availability of the genomes of thousands of species. As a result, across these species more than 80 million different proteins have been identified, however the function of less than 10% of these is known. In recent years computational methods have been developed to infer protein function and fill in this missing information. The methods that we have previously developed, ConFunc (1) and CombFunc (2), have performed well in the critical assessment of functional annotation (CAFA), an international assessment of protein function prediction, with CombFunc ranking in the top ten methods (3, 4). This project will use bioinformatics approaches combined with machine learning to develop a new generation of protein function prediction methods building upon our existing methods and incorporating new features from protein structure and protein disorder. This will include integrating predictions from 3DLigandSite (5) our method for modelling small molecule binding sites in proteins. Further information about the research group is available from our website – www.wasslab.org.

1. Wass MN, Sternberg MJE (2008) ConFunc--functional annotation in the twilight zone. Bioinformatics 24(6):798–806.
2. Wass MN, Barton G, Sternberg MJE (2012) CombFunc: predicting protein function using heterogeneous data sources. Nucleic Acids Res 40(Web Server issue):W466–70.
3. Radivojac P, et al. (2013) A large-scale evaluation of computational protein function prediction. Nat Methods. doi:10.1038/nmeth.2340.
4. Jiang Y, et al. (2016) An expanded evaluation of protein function prediction methods shows an improvement in accuracy. arXiv:1601.00891
5. Wass MN, Kelley LA, Sternberg MJE (2010) 3DLigandSite: predicting ligand-binding sites using similar structures. Nucleic Acids Res 38(Web Server issue):W469–73. Ideally candidates will have some experience of computer programming and an interest in structural bioinformatics. All candidates are expected to have a minimum of an upper 2nd class degree in an appropriate field. To qualify for full funding students must be UK or EU citizens.
Applications can be made online at http://www.kent.ac.uk/bio/study/postgraduate/applications.html where the project title should be entered as the proposed area of research and Dr Mark Wass as supervisor. Please include a CV and cover letter. Applications must be received by Tuesday 29th March. Interviews will be held in early April 2016.Job Information Position Type: Faculty Start Date: September 19, 2016 Duration: Full Time Status: openContact InformationUniversity of Kent
Biosciences
Dr Mark Wass
m.n.wass@kent.ac.ukwww.wasslab.orgHow To Apply:Online at - http://www.kent.ac.uk/bio/study/postgraduate/applications.html

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Requeriments :

• Doctorate Degree

Skills :

• Bioinformatics
• HTML
• Machine Learning
• Programing Skills

Areas :

• Bioinformatics

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Additional Info:

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